Leapmotor Australia says it will continue to work on improving the advanced driver assist systems for Australian models after complaints from both media and customers.
The Leapmotor C10 electric SUV – a rival to the Tesla Model Y – spearheaded the brand’s Australian launch in November 2024, but initial customer feedback saw complaints surrounding the intrusiveness of its advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
While the suite of safety tech helped the C10 achieve a five-star rating from safety authority ANCAP, CarExpert’s first drive of the C10 reported serious drawbacks with the systems.
The C10’s “incessant, overbearing safety chimes” meant they lost their effectiveness, lost in a sound cloud of distraction and interruptions.
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Speaking at the media briefing on the C10 REEV – the range-extender hybrid version of its C10 SUV – Leapmotor Australia boss Andy Hoang and product lead Rick Crichton said changes have been made but are ongoing.
“[Rick] monitors the owner channel pretty closely, and I myself have a lot of dialog with some of our early, early owners, from that point of view,” Mr Hoang told media, including CarExpert.
“We’ve been constantly optimising the vehicle in terms of the software. Certainly, the feedback from very, very early on about the sensitivity of the ADAS has been one of the things that we continually work on.”
The automaker previously told CarExpert it was looking into the issues in order to “improve the customer experience” – which has seen changes which now enable customers to turn off features.
“We introduced the quick down menu to help switch off some of those items for customers at ease and certainly … [we’ll work] continually to better match them to the conditions in Australia,” Mr Hoang said.
The improvements have been introduced with over-the-air (OTA) software updates, with the last for Australian vehicles carried out in February and the next due in August 2025.
“Over the last three updates, I think we’ve been able to get us to a much, much better place. We continue working at it …another update that’s coming that will again really address some of the feedback that we’ve had from customers,” Mr Hoang said.
“Customers are not backwards in suggesting to us the things they would like to see on the car, and those are the things that we’re trying to feed into the plan for the future.”
All C10s come standard with a suite of safety technology that includes:
- Adaptive cruise control
- Autonomous emergency braking
- Driver attention monitoring
- Lane centring
- Lane-keep assist
- Emergency lane-keep assist
- Rear cross-traffic assist
- Safe exit warning
MORE: Everything Leapmotor C10
